Rising
By Dimgwrthien
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to the Harry Potter series or affiliates. Please do not sue.
Bitter snow pierced through their cloaks and Remus carefully drew his closer, feeling the bottom of the dress sway around his ankles. He blushed very slightly, not wanting to remember the form he was in at the moment. Once black hair whipped him in the face, however, he found himself drawing it back into a sort of ponytail in his hand as he had seen Ginny and Hermione do as they studied.
Tonks slowed down for a moment, glancing at Remus. "It's not too bad," she told him.
"Says the woman who is used to changing every few seconds," Remus answered, letting go of his hair and letting it fall around his face again. He could see the dark shadow above his eyes from where his heavier lids fell as though a curtain fell over his head.
She grinned. "Well, it was never easy for me, either. I trip over everything now because I can't remember where I put everything." She waved her arms in a theatrical gesture.
Remus found his own lips curling into a smile. "In fact..." Tonks screwed up the pale face she wore like usual, concentrating as hard as possible.
Her hair became a vivid pink.
Remus drew a finger to her ear, bouncing a lock of the hair on his finger. "You can still transform with the potion?"
Shrugging, Tonks answered. "I ought to change it back. Hopefully I won't keep changing while we're there."
"I thought you -"
"Had complete power over it?" Tonks shook her head, smiling as though it were an easy answer. "Remember last year? I couldn't morph. Most emotions do that. I just have to keep neutral."
Remus tried to imagine Tonks acting neutral and unemotional, but failed miserably.
"Do you have any idea where to look?" Tonks asked, glancing around them.
"With the other werewolves," Remus answered simply. "If we go there, I'm sure they'll tell us." He raised the sleeve of his robes, exposing a Dark Mark on his arm. He grimaced when he saw it, too used to the design from all the times he had seen it over houses of friends.
Tonks looked away from the marred arm and nodded toward a tree. Remus took her hand in his, feeling her elbow turn to allow her to grasp him. In seconds, Remus found them both in a dimly lit forest. He had not seen the portion of it that they were in for nearly a year, or since Dumbledore died.
A light grey tree stood before them, tall and magnificent as the bare branches filtered the sunlight. Around the tree were other trees, all tall and beautiful. A single ray of light fell onto Tonks' face, making her eyes stand out strangely.
"They'll be over there," Remus told her, letting go and leading her toward an area to the side.
A hollowed out rock marked the entrance to the cave that the werewolves used to live in most of the time. Remus motioned to it, facing Tonks. "I'll go in first. Just follow me."
Sliding down into the opening, Remus got his head through the cracks in the stone, first, glancing in. No one seemed to notice him out of the several people walking around. He turned and got his feet through first, trying to grab the openings to stop from sliding.
Once inside, Remus felt his feet hit the ground a foot or so below where he reached before. Tonks was already entering, feet visible in the dim glow of the fires inside. Surprisingly, the place seemed warm even without the addition of fires.
"Thanks," she whispered, but Remus placed a finger to his lips, giving her a small smile. He turned and glanced around. One person walked in front of him, not seeming to notice Remus until he did a double-take.
"She's back," mouthed the werewolf, eyes widening as he sprinted out of the way. From the echoing footsteps, the other werewolves glanced at the commotion and started getting away from Remus and Tonks.
"The Dark Mark certainly seemed persuasive," Tonks muttered, pulling her sleeve tightly around her elbow. "Rem- Bellatrix?"
Remus saw the pained expression in her eyes as she called him by the name. Remus said nothing to her and instead reached out to grab the nearest werewolf, bringing her forcefully to his face.
He caught himself before speaking. Bringing his voice up to a feminine pitch and trying to pretend he had never seen the werewolf before, he asked, "Where's Valentin?"
"It's been a long time," the werewolf whispered. She looked no older than fifteen. Her dark hair seemed to be cut ragged and short, landing just above her chin. The flat chest and thin lips did nothing to make her look feminine.
"Where is she?" Remus asked again, careful to not raise his voice or hurt her. He knew that it would take that to remain in character as Bellatrix, but he recognized the girl so much and knew what she was like. She never deserved it.
Lorene. Fourteen years old. Bitten at the age of twelve. Parents did not find her. Greyback stole her and kept her with the others, a caged monster. She retained the attributes of some amount of civilization.
Remus had met her mother at the Werewolf Registry a while back. She was a proper woman, nose always facing the air, but a cool smile always on her lips. Lorene took after her so much.
Pointing her finger outside of the cave, as though through a wall, she answered in a hoarse voice, "She's with the others. Just on that side. Not far."
Remus found that the girl was shivering in his grasp and let her go. "Thank you," he whispered, stalking back to Tonks. Several of the werewolves growled at them. One of them picked up Lorene forcefully, dragging her to the side and tossing her against the wall, turning back to snarl.
Once they reached the cold outside again, Tonks whispered, "You were with them for a year?"
"They're not too bad," Remus muttered. He felt his face pale. Now that Tonks saw them, she would start with another infamous rant on how he should have mentioned it.
However, she said nothing and took on a faster pace with longer strides.
Sure enough, down just a bit, near where Remus knew the cave ended, there were several footprints in the snow. Remus glance up, seeing nothing in the trees. When he looked down again, searching for the opening, he saw only snow.
"Here," Tonks whispered, voice sounding rather harsh. Remus knew that she was holding back the rant so that the mission could be completed.
Behind a bush, Tonks pushed some of the snow out of the way and found a door-like opening in the dirt. When she grasped the top of the wooden grate, she pushed her head through, glancing in. Her arms anchored her down as she got through the opening, flipping over to land on her feet.
"Bella!" she hissed, switching to an odd voice quite unlike her own. Remus thought she did rather well with taking on Narcissa's voice.
He crawled in, letting his feet hit the floor with a small thunking sound. When he looked around, eyes getting used to the gloom, he saw only pale passageways, lit by torches in the walls. The look of the place seemed rather old and like the werewolves' den, though somewhat more modern.
"Here," she whispered, bringing him to one of the openings in the wall. From inside came a small, wavering sound, rather like people arguing.
"Are you ready?" Remus asked, running a hand against the back of Tonks' head. She touched his arm lightly and nodded.
"You?"
"I can't expect anything better, in all truth." He cleared his throat as quietly as possible, switching to a feminine tone like the one he used before. "Believable?"
"I've heard worse," she answered.
Remus pulled out his wand, frowning at it. He grasped Tonks', which had been in her hand, and used one to Transfiguration the other into a different wood style.
"I think those are right," he whispered, handing one of them back. "We'd give ourselves away, otherwise."
Then, he opened the door.
Candles on a table in the center of the room provided the only light. Several people sat around the table, glaring at one another. A woman at the furthest end of the table stood when they entered, face set and serious. Her jaw seemed more pronounced as she glared.
"Bella," she greeted, inclining her head slightly, never taking her eyes off of them. "Narcissa."
Remus froze. He felt as though she could see right through the disguise, able to tell who he was.
Tonks raised a hand slightly, leaving it in the air before Valentin's. When Valentin merely glared at her, she lowered her hand nervously, though her gaze never wavered.
"Might I congradulate the two of you on being able to find your ways back. We thought you were both dead." Staring back at Remus, still thinking him as Bellatrix, she added, "Not that we weren't amused by the thought."
Remus remained motionless, going through his head as to how Bellatrix would think.
"It would have been a pleasure," he replied, keeping his feminine voice up.
Valentin set her jaw again, narrowing her heavy eyes. Remus saw that, up close, her face was lined with scars from claws and spells alike. The clawed in ones appeared darker and deeper while the spell ones only grazed her face.
She was quick with spells, obviously. Animals, however, seemed to be a problem. Remus smiled to himself.
Valentin looked away from them, light eyes shifting to the corners of the room before she pulled out her wand and pointed it in Remus' face. He remained in place, not letting his heavy breathing be heard. It felt as though she really knew who he was….
"What took you so long?" she asked, separating her feet and squaring her shoulders. "You were called earlier! I managed to get the Marks to burn -"
Remus cut in as Tonks started to shift slightly. "We were captured," he answered, hand groping his own wand. "We managed to get out."
"How?"
"I would hope that you aren't bothering them," came a smooth voice. Valentin moved her head just enough to glance at the Death Eater behind her. His mask was on, making his face impossible to see.
"Get off of me!" she hissed, pushing the man's hand off of her shoulder and never looking away from Remus. She leaned close to him, voice barely audible over the talking of the Death Eaters in the back. "When I find out what you've done -"
"Nothing," Remus replied smoothly.
"Then how did you find us?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Remus raised his wand in her face, landing it right inbetween her eyes. She continued staring at his face, confidently speaking. "I knew you two were traitors. We're going to get rid of you the first second we can."
"Chastity -" Now the masked man sounded annoyed.
"You'll need to prove your loyalty - There are plenty others we still need killed! You can do it, you -"
By now, the man had pulled her back completely, letting her fall against the desk. However, she pounced back up, gripping his robes by the collar. Once she managed to glare at him for a moment, she raised her wand at him, stumbling back, and screaming, "Crucio!"
He fell against the floor, writhing as he cried out in pain. Remus forced himself to watch, to block out the dreadful yells. Tonks looked away, biting her lip.
"Now, then," she panted, turning to Remus. Her face contorted in rage again, and she glanced back at the man. "Shut it!" she yelled at him, then flicked her wand to end the spell. He panted on the ground, moaning as he crawled away from her. Valentin faced them again. "Prove it," she told them simply.
They glanced at each other nervously.
"A raid tonight," she explained. "We're short a man. I suppose two would work just as fine. It's with Potter's friends - that Weasley and the Mudblood."
Remus managed to get a sideways glance of Tonks, who's pale face went even paler. Valentin seemed to notice and rounded on her.
"Scared of them?" she asked, bending close to Tonks' ear. "I know you're terrified of raids. Just deal with it. I can think of a hundred worse things to do, and that's just off the top of my head." She smiled, pressing a hand into Narcissa's blonde hair that brightened part of the room. "Tread carefully in my path. I don't believe I told you about your husband." Then, violently, she ripped out a long trendle of hair, letting them curl around her fingers as she smiled.
"No," she responded.
"Have I told you?" Valentin asked, pressing an ear against the pale face. "I demand an answer."
The voice sounded mocking and inhuman, gloating over a lost prize.
"No," Tonks repeated louder.
"Have I?" Valentin yelled.
"NO!" Tonks screamed back, pressing her hands against Valentin and throwing her away from her. "Damn it, you have not! I told you already!"
When the dark-haired woman's hands reached for her wand, Remus threw Tonks back into the wall, shielding her from harm.
"Out," he hissed, keeping his eyes on Valentin, who paused.
Tonks did not need to be told twice. She gave Remus a quick glance, eyes wide, then exited with room with hurried steps.
Valentin squared her shoulders and walked toward Remus, smirking. "Bella, I never thought you would be so protective of your little sister."
Remus raised his wand slightly.
"You know yourself that she was never cut up to be one of us. We should send her with the werewolves to get it over with. She amounts to about the same. Of course, I can't even get started on you -"
"I'm -"
"I think it runs in the Black family. Your last sister is as bad - What did she do again? Run off with one of them?" She let her back slide slightly, leaning against the air.
Remus remembered Andromeda for a moment, realizing that she was, indeed, related to Bellatrix. Suddenly, his pity increased for her. She had always been the middle of the sisters - middle-aged, pale like Narcissa, but with Bellatrix's dark hair, everything.
"Get out of here," Valentin told him, turning away. "I expect you here again, tonight at midnight. We're raiding. If you're not here…" She turned and twirled her wand innocently in her fingers. "You're going to be very, very sorry."
Remus stumbled out of the room, watching the floor beneath him rather than meeting the eyes of any of the surrounding Death Eaters.
Tonks leaned against the side of the doorway when he exited. "I'm sorry," she blurted out the second he reached her, but he just took her hand and led her further into the trees.
Before she could say a thing, Remus grinned at her. "I had to admit, Tonks, that was daring. Good." He ran a hand through her hair, still grinning, but forced his expression to sober. "However, we're -"
"Going to have to keep a low profile?" she asked, sighing.
"Exactly." Remus waved his wand once, forcing a soft buzzing into the ears of anyone around. He had learned it from Severus, of course, from the days of never hearing anything from him. Tonks glanced around nervously. "The hour's almost up."
"I want to get out of this body for a while," Remus sighed, shrugging his shoulders around. Everything felt wrong, weight in the wrong places, legs moving different ways. "Would you mind if I tried something?"
"Be my guest," she answered. "I hate this as much as you do."
Remus concentrated for a moment, forcing himself to use nonverbal spells even though no one could hear them. After a moment, the forest around them grew dimmer and the snow almost completely melted from where they stood and a few feet around.
"What was that?" Tonks asked, gaping.
"They can't see us," Remus answered. "Like a force field, but it anyone felt like tossing a spell at us, we'd be hit. We're just invisible to them."
Within moments which felt like eternity, Remus felt his skin crawl again unpleasantly. It escaped from the binds of muscle and writhed until it fell back into the for he recognized.
Tonks coughed when she finished, looking rather pained. Remus noted that her hair was a lank, brown color again, as usual. She winced and changed it to red, falling down to her waist.
Remus touched her cheek slowly, letting himself touch her skin and not Narcissa's. She smiled and leaned into him, touching his chest and sliding into the feeling.
"I hate this," she whispered, wrapping long arms around him. "I want to just go home. I wish we could."
"Really soon," he promised. "We'll be back very soon."
That night, after the moon had risen, plump but not full, and the stars shined in the sky, Remus and Tonks finally put down the charms around them after drinking the potion. Tonks only managed to slip her hand out of Remus' before they saw the time.
"I don't want to do this," Tonks whispered. "Hermione and Ron?"
"We can still save them," Remus whispered out of the corner of his mouth. "Just pretend you can't get them. No offense to you, but she thinks Narcissa's weak."
"Bellatrix isn't, though. She'll have known that she can kill easily."
"I can deal with it," Remus whispered. "Just do anything you can to resist."
Inside where they had been before, the two found a group of Death Eaters, wearing black robes and masks. Valentin met up with them near the front, mask still in hand.
"Here," she told them, shoving robes into their hands. "Put them on with the masks." Once both shrugged into the robes, she sighed. "And you both lost their masks, too? Pathetic. Nott!"
A thin Death Eater walked toward them, dark brown hair still visible under the hood of his robes.
"Fix that damn thing," she hissed, "and find two masks."
He gave off a quiet, growling sound before shoving the bit of his hair behind the mask. Walking off, Remus heard several more words from him that he cared not to listen to.
She pulled Tonks' hood down so that the tip of it folded over her nose. "Your hair is too bright," she scolded. "Hide it before I chop it off. And you -" She turned to Remus, kicking him near the feet, pushing the hem of the robes down. "Like that. Don't fold them up."
Nott returned, tossing the two masks at them and lifting his own up for a moment to make a rude face at Valentin's back.
"You all know where. You two, just follow," she added to Remus and Tonks. "Hurry up. We Apparate to the safe zone and walk the rest of the way. Remember the charms."
Everyone but Remus and Tonks paused for a moment and tapped their own heads with wands before they become invisible, though a faint outline betrayed their place. Remus quickly followed suit, getting Tonks before she could, too.
All but one of the Death Eaters Apparated from the room. The last one, Nott, sighed and walked over to Remus and Tonks.
"She's an old bugger," he muttered, gripping their arms. "Asshole, if you ask me. I'll take you there."
He gripped both of their arms before they said a word and closed his eyes, making a small movement. Remus felt his breath constrict as they Apparating, able to breath moments later.
The house before them looked the same as Remus thought it would look. Everything was set up rather messily, though there was the undertone of attempting to clean it up. It reminded him of Hermione and Ron together.
Valentin got to the door first, unlocking it easily. Once inside, Remus tugged Tonks to the side, giving her a warning look out of the corner of his eye. She nodded.
Charms fell off of the Death Eaters as they became visible once more. Nott pulled his mask off, though placed it back on once Valentin glowered at him.
"You may have lost your master," she hissed to all of them, closing the door slowly and quietly, "but I'm here. There's no need to slack off. There will still be punishment. Nott, I want you and you" - she pointed out several more - "to keep watch. The rest spread around. Lestrange and Malfoy will come with me." She jutted out her pointed chin in the direction of the staircase.
They followed her up the stairs, twisting around the pictures on the walls with Ron and Hermione grinning happily from them.
"In," she mouthed, pushing them to the door. Tonks unlocked it with shaking hands, entering the room.
Before she did anything, Valentin pointed her wand at an end of the bed, letting the post glow blue before lowering her wand. Then, Valentin shoved a wand from her pocket into Tonks' hands. "Kill the man," she hissed into her ear. "Now. We'll kill you if you don't."
Tonks raised her wand, ready to cast the spell. Remus saw the scared look in her eyes and the way her arms shook. Chastity Valentin raised a wand to the back of her throat and Tonks let out a strangled whine that could not be heard by the two sleeping people.
Remus knew that if she didn't, Valentin really would do something dreadful. Gathering up all of his nerves and breath, he yelled, without bothering with his Bellatrix-voice, "Hermione! Get up now!"
Hermione's head popped from the bed like a rocket and she flipped over. Ron's eyes flew open, too, and they both stared at Valentin and Tonks for only a moment before Hermione's hand gripped her wand.
"Out!" yelled Valentin. "Everyone out!" She moved away from Tonks, yelling, "Get them, Malfoy!"
Hermione was already sending a Stunner towards Valentin, though Valentin ducked it, running out the door. When Hermione turned her wand toward Tonks, Remus pushed her out of the way.
"Hermione, don't!" he whispered. "It's Remus and Tonks. We're Polyjuiced!"
However, the girl sent another spell at his head, forcing him to duck with Tonks to avoid it. They hit the end of the bed, finding themselves transported quickly, unable to stop themselves.
"Portkey," Remus muttered once he felt himself land. He hunched forward over the ground, looking blindly in the dark for Tonks' hand. "Nymphadora? Where are you?"
"She's not here, of all places," came a voice. "I mean, I'm standing here. I would think she's over there."
Remus glanced up, seeing the faint highlights that marked Valentin's face. She smiled at him, bending down so that her dark cloak made an even deeper shadow than those around him.
"I can easily see you are a traitor, Bellatrix. Really, though, it's Remus, isn't it? I knew there was something different about you, but I just supposed Azkaban had messed with you. Of her. It doesn't matter anymore, though. I heard you outside the door." She pinched his cheek slightly, twisting the small amount of flesh on his face tightly and letting go with a fake smile.
"I'm going to give you a treat," she continued, still grinning like a maniac. "You get to stay in a very special place. I spent half of my life there. It teaches you very well. I learned from it as a child."
Remus' eyes widened as he saw her point the wand between his eyes.
"It's a magical place where you can think. Not about rational thought. Rational thought hinders the ability to think imaginatively. That's what they teach you as a child. I was never taught it. In this place, you can think about anything. Rewards, consequences, anything.
"It's called a mind."
Remus tried to move away from her, but found that something had knocked him out of the way as Valentin yelled out a spell.
"Tonks!" he yelled once she got off of him, her own wand raised. Her blonde hair was already starting to fade away and replace itself with shorter, brown hair.
"Step away," she hissed at Valentin, standing up and moving closer. Valentin saw that her wand was across the room, at least twenty feet away judging by the skidding sound, and paused.
"Now!" Tonks commanded in a louder voice. "Get the hell away right now or you'll find yourself -"
Valentin, however, had managed to kick Tonks' ankles, making an odd, cracking sound as the girl fell to the floor, yelling. Valentin took the fallen wand from Tonks, summoning her own quickly and turning onto them.
"Avada -"
Remus threw himself onto her, twisting her shoulders back so that she was too choked to finish the spell. When she threw a punch at his head, Remus got the wand out of her hand, bending over her to straddle her arms and make sure she couldn't punch. However, her next aim went to his mouth, causing a scarlet spur of blood to fall into the ground. Valentin screamed.
"Tonks, go! Get Mad-Eye or someone!"
Tonks, however, bent close to Remus, stepping on Valentin's hand until the scream doubled.
"I'm not. I refuse to leave unless you do," she told him, wiping away the smear of blood on his face. She frowned. "You're not cut. That's odd -"
On Chastity Valentin's arm was a smooth cut, in the shape of a set of teeth.